Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California, surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood. The area was settled by Mexico in 1828, and it became a ranch where lima beans were grown. Soon, investors began looking for oil in the area, but they instead found water, and they decided to make the area into a town. The area was named for Beverly Farms in the city of Beverly, Massachusetts, and it became an incorporated city in 1914. The population rapidly grew during the early 20th century as celebrities such as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Will Rogers, and Rudolph Valentino moved into the area. In the early 1940s, African-American actors and businessmen began moving into the area, defying the "whites-only" rule for inhabitants; in 1948, the US Supreme Court ruled that restrictive covenants were unenforceable. Beverly Hills became one of the most desirable and wealthy neighborhoods in America, with many rich and retired people living in high-end mansions (many built with Spanish architecture) in the north, and with many shopping areas being located in the south. Beverly Hills had a population of 34,109 people in 2010, with 78.6% being white, 8.9% Asian, 5.7% Hispanic, 4.9% multiracial, 2.2% African-American, 1.4% other, and .1% Native American.